Internship Opportunities (a total of 19 internships are proposed)
Health on the Net Foundation
(www.HealthOnNet.org)
Health On the Net Foundation, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is an
international non-profit organisation dedicated to realising the
benefits of the Internet and related technologies in the fields of
medicine and healthcare. With private and public sector support, the
Foundation actively promotes effective Internet use and demonstrates
best-in-class implementation and application.
HON’s two main goals are:
- Improving the quality of e-health information
HON grants certification to health and medical websites
through the HONcode. This is the oldest
and most internationally used Code of Ethics, now a de facto standard,
for certifying health-related websites. It is based on eight
requirements that concern the following aspects:
- Authorship
- Complementarity
- Privacy
- Attribution
- Justifiability and completeness
- Transparency
- Funding
- Advertising policy
Each request of certification is examined by a member of
the HONcode Review Committee, which includes medical professionals. The
certification is free of charge. Certified websites are granted a
HONcode quality mark, helping citizens identify reliable websites, and
undergo a systematic biennial review, required for the renewal of the
HONcode certificate.
HONcode highlights
- HON implemented the 2001 eEurope Quality Criteria for
Health Web Sites, based on the HONcode principles.
- As of today, there are more than 7,200
HONcode-certified websites across 102 countries, representing over 10
million web pages.
- 4,400 certified websites in 24 European countries.
- HON, the official certifying body for health websites
in France.
- Since 2007, HON has been accredited by the French
High Health Authority as the official certifying body for French health
websites. In France alone, there are already more than 1,300 certified
websites.
- Improving the access to quality e-health information
HON is also engaged in the research and development of
strategies aimed at improving the access to quality health information.
HON is offering the following internships to give
students an insight into the work at HON and the importance of the
HONcode.
The minimum eligibility criteria are:
- Applicants must be
enrolled in a study program during the internship, which will
eventually result in a Bachelor’s degree or higher.
- Applicants must be 20
years old or older.
- Applicants must at be
well conversant in either English or French and preferably have basic
knowledge of the other. Knowledge of any other languages will also be
taken into consideration.
The following internships are available at HON:
-
Web Programming
-
Information Technology
-
Medical Linguistics
-
Research Assistant, online health information
-
Internship 1: Policy research intern
Internship responsibilities
The internship involves conducting desk-based research
on advertising and editorial policies on health and medical websites
and will propose solutions on how to best adapt the HONcode based on
them. The tasks will focus on, but will not be limited to, the
following:
- analyse processes and activities related to health
and medical website advertising and editorial policies at the European
level;
- identify existing editorial and advertising policies
implemented elsewhere;
- evaluate and propose methods and pragmatic solutions
HON could adapt based on these policies;
- conduct literature review and build bibliography on
advertising and editorial policy-making
Qualifications required
- availabilily for 3 months full-time;
- has at least a bachelor's degree; a graduate degree
is a plus;
- preferably having one of the following academic
backgrounds: policy-making, media law, advertising, health
communications, social sciences, media technologies;
- previous research experience;
- strong writing and proofreading skills;
- highly organised and able to pay close attention to
detail;
- English language skills at native-speaker level,
knowledge of other languages would be an asset
- ability to work under pressure and in a multicultural
international environment
- Internship 2: Project Assistant
Internship responsibilities
We are developing a certification scheme for health and
medical NGOs. The intern's tasks will focus on, but will not be limited
to, the following:
- liaise with health NGOs to assess and evaluate the
feasibility of developing a certification scheme for websites of health
NGOs
- propose solutions on how to best certify health NGO
websites
- integrate and identify events in the health fields to
be added to the HON directory/network
Qualifications required
- availability for 3 months full-time;
- has at least a bachelor's degree; a graduate degree
is a plus;
- preferably having one of the following academic
backgrounds: health sciences, health communications, social sciences;
- previous advocacy experience;
- strong writing skills;
- strong negotiation skills;
- highly organised and able to pay close attention to
detail;
- English language skills at native-speaker level,
knowledge of other languages would be an asset
- ability to work under pressure and in a multicultural
international environment
- Internship 3: German
translation intern
The internship will
involve:
- translating
provisu.ch (HON's trustworthy online information on vision disorders,
eye diseases and the prevention of blindness) into German;
- identifying
German-language websites on specific topics according to the HONcode
- various German
language translation tasks (German-French-English)
Qualifications required
- availability for 3
months full-time;
- has at least a
bachelor's degree in translation/German;
- strong writing skills;
- highly organised and
able to pay close attention to detail;
- German language
skills at native-speaker level, knowledge of French and English
- ability to work under
pressure and in a multicultural international environment
Professional intership of 4 months full time or 8 months (50%) with
possibility of a permanent employment.
- Internship 4: Research assistant
Internship responsibilities
In France, a set of guidelines on certifying web forums
has recently been mandated. In relation to this, the intern's tasks
will focus on, but will not be limited to, the following:
- analyse and evaluate this new guideline;
- propose pragmatic solutions on how HON could adapt
this new guideline;
- conduct desk-based research and provide an evaluation
and proposal on how HON should develop a set of guidelines for web 2.0
developments
- formulate a study (negotiation, actualization,
validation and deployment of the questionnaire) to evaluate the level
of satisfaction and the expectations of webmasters for this specific
code
Qualifications required
- availabilily for 6 months full-time;
- holds at least a bachelor's degree; a graduate degree
is a plus;
- preferably having one of the following academic
backgrounds: policy-making, media law, Internet/web technology studies,
health communications, social sciences, media technologies;
- previous research experience;
- strong writing and proofreading skills;
- highly organised and able to pay close attention to
detail;
- French language skills at native-speaker level,
knowledge of other languages would be an asset
- ability to work under pressure and in a multicultural
international environment
- Internship 5: Project
assessment intern
This internship will focus on SanteRomande.ch, a website
developed by HON, which is a useful and reliable online medical and
health information for residents of the French-speaking region
Switzerland. The intern's tasks will focus on, but will not be limited
to, the following:
- conduct an assessment of SanteRomande.ch's
organization and content
- evaluate the site in terms of usability testing
- propose solutions to improve the website and network;
Qualifications required
- availabilily for 3 months full-time;
- holds at least a bachelor's degree in the health
sciences; a graduate degree is a plus;
- strong writing skills;
- highly organised and able to pay close attention to
detail;
- French language skills at native-speaker level,
knowledge of other languages would be an asset
- The ability to work under pressure and in a
multicultural international environment
- Internship 6: web design intern
This internship will focus on SanteRomande.ch, a website
developed by HON, which is a useful and reliable online medical and
health information for residents of the French-speaking region
Switzerland. The intern's tasks will focus on, but will not be limited
to, the following:
- improving SanteRomande.ch's “look and
feel,” making it more accessible and user-friendly,
especially to those who are impaired;
- developing new sections of the website;
- updating the website on a regular basis
Qualifications required
- availabilily for 6 months full-time;
- holds a degree/diploma in graphic/web design/web
development;
- experience with HTML, CSS, Java, content management
system, Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver and other web design programs
- ability to work independently;
- highly creative;
- highly organised and able to pay close attention to
detail;
- French language skills at native-speaker level,
knowledge of other languages would be an asset;
- the ability to work under pressure and in a
multicultural international environment
- Internship 7:
Catégorisation de l’information de
santé sur le Web.
La Fondation Health-on-the-Net effectue la certification
de sites internet afin d’améliorer la
qualité de l’internet Santé. Dans le
but de rendre accessible les sites de confiance, HON
développe des barres d’outils pour naviguer en
tout confiance.
Actuellement l’information de santé
n’est pas classifiée ou dans certains cas selon
les types d’audience (patient, professionnel de
santé,…).
Problématique : identifier de nouveaux cas selon le
vécu, le besoin dans des différents utilisateurs.
Par exemple culture générale, la maladie au
quotidien, maladie chronique, information complète,
…
L’étudiant devra faire une étude de la
littérature sur le sujet. Au cours de son stage il/elle
réalisera des interviews structurées des
internautes pour identifier leurs besoins en termes
d’information.
- Internship 8: Consolidation
d’un vocabulaire contrôlé.
La Fondation Health-on-the-Net effectue la certification
de sites internet afin d’améliorer la
qualité de l’internet Santé. Dans le
but de rendre accessible les sites de confiance, HON
développe des barres d’outils pour naviguer en
tout confiance.
Le stage s’inscrit dans le cadre de
l’activité principale de la Fondation Health On
the Net qui a pour but de guider le citoyen vers de
l’information fiable et adaptée a ses besoins et
cela via des outils et systèmes spécifiques.
L’étudiant devra élaborer un
vocabulaire contrôlé pour les patients dans le
domaine de la santé à partir de documents
catégorisés manuellement par
l’équipe HON et les requêtes faites par
l’utilisateur.
- Internship 9: Enquête
structurée
La Fondation Health-on-the-Net effectue la certification
de sites internet afin d’améliorer la
qualité de l’internet Santé. Dans le
but de rendre accessible les sites de confiance, HON
développe des barres d’outils pour naviguer en
tout confiance. Le stage s’inscrit dans le cadre de
l’activité principale de la Fondation Health On
the Net qui a pour but de guider le citoyen vers de
l’information fiable et adaptée a ses besoins.
L’étudiant devra effectuer des
entretiens structurés auprès des internautes pour
connaître leur usage d’internet afin de comprendre
leur besoins.
L’étudiant sera amené
à réaliser des analyses statistiques.
- Internship
10: Evaluation of the Web 2.0 code of HON:
HON has a specific code for web 2.0 platforms. It is
composed of 8 points, providing the basis for the official
certification of web 2.0 resources. The student will have to formulate
a study (negotiation, actualization, validation and deployment of the
questionnaire) to evaluate the level of satisfaction and the
expectations of webmasters for this specific code. This work will be
done for French websites.
- Internship
11: Elaboration of a typology for toxicology:
The knowledge of HON in the valuation of health
information is used for the
Swiss Centre for Applied Human Toxicology (http://www.scaht.org/).
During their internship, the student should develop a strategy of
classification for toxicology. To undertake this unique classification
strategy, the student should use existing terminologies (Medical
Subject Heading, among others...). To finish, the student will have a
corpus of web pages to validate the quality of his strategy.
- Internship
12: Study and development of ergonomics on
many informatics application:
The Health On the Net Foundation is looking for a
student who will develop a tool to better integrate our different
search information tools. They will work on the usability, ergonomics,
integration of our search engines.
- Internship
13: Statistic study: Impact of the HONcode
certification
The Health On the Net Foundation certifies health
websites since 1995. HON is the organism accredited by the Haute
Autorité de Santé of France since November 2007
to certify health websites in France. We know that the certification
done by the foundation has an impact on the quality of health
information online, and we want to compute this impact systematically.
HON has a huge quantity of data that the student should select and
analyse to enhance the certification value. The student will have to
lead this analysis.
- Internship
14: For librarians:
Define and validate a topology of websites on the
Internet on the basis of publications and the existing topology.
- Internship
15: Development Web and iPhone
applications:
Health On the Net Foundation, based in Geneva,
Switzerland, is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to
realising the benefits of the Internet and related technologies in the
fields of medicine and healthcare. With private and public sector
support, the Foundation actively promotes effective Internet use and
demonstrates best-in-class implementation and application. It
aims to enhance the use of new technologies in the medical domain; HON
is looking for developers of IT applications such as flash, websites
development, or development of an iPhone application. The future
collaborator should create an innovative and intelligent application
for the iPhone (know Xcode and objective-C), be able to develop flash
application or create website with CMS such as Joomla.
- Internship
16: Detection of
ethical principles on a medical wevsite (pdf in French)
- Internship
17: Databases
management-Identification of a medical professional (pdf in French)
-
Internship
18: Development of HON toolbar
for Chrome browser
- Internship 19 :
Development of a search engine to retrieve images
The Health On the Net Foundation certifies websites to
improve the quality of health information online. In order to foster
access to trustworthy websites, HON also develops specific
research tools to be used in the medical field.
The internship is based on the European project KHRESMOI (http://www.khresmoi.eu)
of which the Foundation is a key partner in developing research tools
to retrieve medical images. Today, HON has two different image
databases: one operates via certified websites and the other via the
HONmedia tool (http://services.hon.ch/cgi-bin/HONmedia).
The intern will have to automatically identify, index and sort images
and videos available on trustworthy health websites.
NLP and research algorithms will need to be used.
The choices made by the intern will have to be motivated and discussed.
S/he will have to draft intermediary reports.
